Recent bureau figures imply that Melbourne today is home to 4.35 million people - and 27 per cent bigger than the city it was at the start of 2000.

If growth continues at that rate, Melbourne's population would pass 5 million by 2025, overtake Sydney by 2037, and reach 8 million by 2049.

The booming population growth raises serious doubts about the Napthine government's plans to build only one major infrastructure project at a time, and avoid new debt.

With a rapidly growing population squeezing into road and rail systems that are barely growing at all, this would intensify the strain on the city's infrastructure, leading to increased congestion on the roads and overcrowding on trains.

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Most of Melbourne's growth is in the outer suburbs. The bureau reports that South Morang had the biggest population growth of any suburb in Australia, growing by 500 people a month over the five years to 2012. Point Cook was second, Tarneit third and Craigieburn fourth.

The population of the city of Melbourne grew by 5138 in 2011-12 alone, and has more than doubled since New Year's Day 2000 to 105,360. That included 23,867 people living in the city centre itself, 13,505 in Southbank and 6640 in Docklands - 44,012 between them, compared with just 1796 in 1992.

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But the bureau's figures show populations are growing in almost every suburb of Melbourne, and in most towns of any size across Victoria. Ballarat had almost 100,000 people by mid-2012, its growth rate matching Melbourne's, with Bendigo not far behind.

While people are drifting away from small towns and rural areas, in most of Victoria, that is outweighed by those drifting into towns such as Mildura, Warrnambool, Shepparton and Wodonga. The exceptions are the eastern Mallee, the Wimmera and the southern Grampians.

In mid-2012, the bureau estimates, Victoria was home to 5.63 million people, and Australia 22.71 million.

Melbourne had the largest growth of any Australian city over the five years, but Perth was growing fastest. Its population shot up by 271,500 to be 1.9 million in mid-2012, and on track to pass 2 million late this year.